They're 'clean': SoftBank gets thumbs-up from Uncle Sam for keeping Chinese gear off its Japanese 5G network

SoftBank's Japanese 5G network has been awarded "clean status" by the US government. Introduced earlier this month by the State Department, the Clean Network programme is an attempt to protect American technological interests by limiting the usage of equipment and software from vendors perceived to have ties to unfriendly …

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Avoid a digital Pearl Harbor

By having the Japanese run all your DoD networks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Back to the drawing board I guess...

Just when you think you're clean, you get the USA thumbs up :-(

[Charlie Clark]

Sounds like something from the Ministry of Fun!

You couldn't really make this stuff up: "Clean Cloud", "Clean Network", etc As if personal data breaches aren't a daily occurrence on the interadnet!

And it's not as if the Japanese were ever going to use Chinese networking gear in their networks anyway.

[First Light]

Re: Sounds like something from the Ministry of Fun!

And giving out awards for it has a kind of elementary school - level appeal. Like Scout badges or something.

[Teiwaz]

Re: Sounds like something from the Ministry of Fun!

And giving out awards for it has a kind of elementary school - level appeal. Like Scout badges or something.

Sort of, 'Congrats, you get a 'Trumps Up' (and not a knock like Tiktok for sending Trump Up or an 'Up yours, Trump').

[JohnMurray]

It may be better for global security if everyone kept USA gear off their networks (NSA/CIA et-al)

[Claptrap314]

Why not both?

[Pascal Monett]

I second that motion

Let's have an EU Clean Network program, where no piece of equipment is beholden to any foreign state government. So it'll have to be Ericsson everywhere, I guess.

Oh, and can we please get rid of NSA listening posts on our side of international fiber links ?

[TheIO]

Re: I second that motion

Ericsson and Nokia, but yes.

[iron]

When it comes to 5G, what USA gear?

[Henry Wertz 1]

Why woud they give a f?

Why would SoftBank Japan give a flying f*** if their network meets some protectionist US standard or not? To be clear, the network in question is in Japan, and Softbank does not have any network in the US (i.e. no US presence for nutjob Trump to use as leverage.) I'm just honestly wondering what the point is of letting the state dept. sniff around your in-no-way-US-based network to begin with.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Why woud they give a f?

>Softbank does not have any network in the US

But it does have lots of $Bn of investments in US companies

If the Very Stable Jenius decided to go all Goodyear on Softbank they could be in trouble

[IGotOut]

Re: Why woud they give a f?

Had to laugh at the GoodYear rant.

Don't buy GoodYear, much cheaper brands out there....that'll be all the Chinese brands then.

[hoola]

Re: Why woud they give a f?

Equally, if Softbank decided to realise their investments in those US companies and start selling their stake, company values would slide. Maybe the Chinese would take a stake......

Still not sure what the US is doing poking its nose into a Japanese company. At the moment the US is in meltdown and they would do far better addressing their own problems instead of interfering in other peoples. One can only hope that a change of president might improve things but I think that may be over optimistic. There are so many entrenched views in the establishment I am not sure there are any easy solutions.

[Sanguma]

Re: Why woud they give a f?

Trump is just pining for the fjords, taking a kip after a ferocious morning squawk ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Priorities

Clean Networks are so much more critical than Clean Air or Clean Water.